Concerns Over New Bylaws

While I  could download the new bylaws last night, I’m not able to do that tonight, so I am just going to point out things the community may want to consider discussing at tomorrow’s meeting.

Section 1: Name

This paragraph has been modified  to allow the board to user alternate names for the organization as it sees fit.  When the bylaws were first reviewed by the board, the name NOMI-J was used.  It was decided not to be so specific because a number of board members and residents felt this legal document should stick to the legal name of the organization.

Section 3: Purpose

This section used to identify the mission of the organization this way:  “The Jordan Area Community Council is organized exclusively for charitable purposes, created to organize people, knowledge and capital for the collective empowerment of Jordan residents.”

The new version says:  “The Jordan Area Community Council is a non-profit organization created to organize people, disseminate community information and attract capital for the collective and independent empowerment of Jordan residents with a focus on livability issues.”

Concerns: The new version sounds limiting and talks only about attracting capital to the neighborhood rather than using the rich sources of capital already available within the neighborhood.

ARTICLE II -MEMBERSHIP AND VOTING ELIGIBILITY

Section 1: Membership Qualification

Membership is reserved for those who live or work within the Jordan neighborhood.

Section 2: Voting Eligibility

Voting rights, however, are reserved only for those individuals who are 18 and live in the neighborhood. Youth 15 to 17 years of age may petition the board for voting rights and may be approved by a 2/3 majority vote of the board as long as such youth do not exceed 50% of the existing voting membership.

Concerns:  (1) The right of property owners to vote has been removed in this new version of the bylaws, which runs counter to state statute.  (2) I do not believe it would be wise to grant voting rights to youth up to a maximum of  50% of the membership. This neighborhood has significant program income from NRP that the adult membership has challenges in managing.  Putting that money in the hands of 15- to 17-year-olds might not be wise.

Section 3: Membership Privileges and Duties

a.  Speak on the floor at all JACC general and annual meetings regarding issues discussed at such meetings.

b.  Make motions at all such meetings.

c.  Entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote of members.

d.  Members in good standing are eligible to serve on the JACC Board of Directors.

e.  Members in good standing are eligible to serve as  member or chair of any committee appointed or organized by JACC.

Section 4: Members in Good Standing

A member in good standing:

a.  Meets the minimum membership qualification

b.  Has a completed membership form on file with the JACC

c.  Has attended 3 JACC associated meetings within an election cycle

d.  Has incurred no sustained grievances within 18 months

Concerns: JACC was told in 2004 that Item (b) is a violation of state law.  The state statute requires that a member reside within the neighborhood, work within the neighborhood or own property within the neighborhood.  This should be removed.  Further, requiring that a member attend at  least three JACC meetings will eliminate about 95% of the Jordan neighborhood from voting.  The purpose of JACC is to improve citizen participation, not restrict it.  Finally, Item (d) is too vague.   What if there is a disagreement or a misunderstanding?  Is that justification to remove one’s voting rights?

ARTICLE III ANNUAL MEETING

Section 1: Annual Meeting

Held in October unless  membership directs otherwise. Absentee voting not allowed.  Membership present shall constitute a quorum.  Date, time and location determined by the board of directors.  Purpose is to elect members in good standing to the board, present reports of the board summarizing  past year’s activities, presentation of financial, membership and audit statements.  Notice shall be provided by the Chair of the Board of Directors.

Concerns: Date, time and location are determined by the Nominating Committee, and notice is provided by the Nominating Committee.

Section 2: Board of Director Meetings

This used to say the board meeting was held on the  second Wednesday of each month.  It now says “Board meetings shall be held monthly with public notice.”  Quorum is one-half the seated board members plus one.

Concern: The board meeting (in fact, all JACC meetings) have been set to a specific day of the month so that  there is no question about when the meetings take place.  JACC has a tough time finding a way to provide “public notice” such that all members of the community are notified.  Adopting this change means most of the community will not know when the meeting schedules are.

Section 3: Special Membership Meetings

May be called by the Chair or Vice Chair but must be called when presented b a petition to the Secretary signed by 25 members.

Section 4: Emergency Meetings

The Chair or Vice-Chair may call an emergency meeting.   Upon request by two seated Directors, the must call and notice an emergency meeting.  Notice of emergency meeting shall be made at least twenty-four (24) hours prior the meeting by either mail, email, posted notices, telephone, website, blog or other appropriate means of communication by the Chair or Vice-Chair.  The purpose of the meeting must be specified and no business other than the stated purpose may be discussed or acted on at emergency meetings.  The minutes of the meeting must describe the nature and resolution of the emergency.

a. vote may be taken through the means of a parallel electronic communication delivered to the Secretary, and shall be given the same authority as a hand-count.

Section 5: Notice

As of July 1, 2010, notice of all meetings shall be made electronically via e-mail, website, and/or blog by the Chair or Vice-Chair.  Additional postings are optional.  The notice must include the date, time, place, and brief description of the agenda.

a.     The annual meeting will be announced with a 10 day notice by mail.

a.     This notification can be abolished with a 2/3 vote of the membership.

Concerns: The last bylaws change in 2004 focused on notification. Members felt they were not getting adequate notice about meetings.  This section used to read: “At least ten days before a meeting of the members of the neighborhood organization is to be held, notice of the date, time, and place shall be given in a manner designed to notify all members with voting rights.”

Section 6: Procedure

The New Robert’s Rules of Order and Minnesota Open Meeting Law (Minn. Stat. 13D.01 et. al.) shall govern all meetings.

Concerns: Until  recently, JACC meetings were run informally, only resorting to Robert’s Rules of Order when necessary.  The use of Robert’s Rules of Order tends to inhibit participation by residents because most people do not have a lot of experience with them.  Robert’s Rules can, and often area, used to halt participation in meetings.

Section 7: General Meeting

There shall  be a minimum of four general meetings, which must inclde one meeting to elect directors.

ARTICLE VI

Section 1: Officers

The officers shall be Chair, Vice-Chair, Member-at-Large, Secretary, and Treasurer.

Concerns: The “Member-at-Large” is something new added to this set of bylaws, so it should be looked at carefully.  In practical terms, it means that fully 1/3 of the board will be members of the executive committee.  Is this a good thing?  The role of the “Member-at-Large” is to step in and run the executive committee if both the chair and vice-chair are unavailable.  Could the Treasurer do this?  Or do we want a fifth member of the committee available?

Other changes: The other major change to the bylaws is the  removal of the ex officio role for the outgoing board chair.  As previously written, the bylaws kept the former board chair as an ex officio member of the board with voting right.  That became a problem with the ex officio member’s vote swayed decisions.  It became more of a problem when he was elected vice-chair.  Had the chair resigned, JACC would have been led by a chair who was not elected to the board.  That section has been removed from this set of bylaws.  It does raise the question of whether or not the ex officio role should be left in but with voting rights and without the right to hold office.  It would seem to make sense to have the person in an  advisory role, partcularly if they were good at the job.

That’s all the time tonight.  See you all tomorrow night.

Bylaws Now Available

Here’s the link to the bylaws.  They’re stored on another site that I own:

https://files.me.com/dottietitus/u7f5ef.

This will cause the 11-page document to download to your computer, and  you can store it where you like on your computer.  This copy is the one marked up with strikeovers so you can tell exactly that has been changed.  Let me know if it doesn’t work.

BYLAWS UP FOR REVISION

On September 16th,  there will be a community meeting for JACC members to hear a reading of the bylaw changes your Board of Directors has approved.  Changes cannot take effect until (1) there is a community meeting where the changes are read and members have the opportunity to discuss the changes  and make motions to accept or reject specific changes or vote in additional chanages, (2)  a waiting period of approximately 30 days occurs (for all of us to think about the changes some more, and (3) a second meeting is help where the membership votes to accept or reject the bylaws change in total.

This is a very important process.  In last year’s lawsuits, Judge Porter pointed to ambivalent places in the bylaws that permitted certain actions to be taken that were very harmful to JACC.  He suggested the bylaws be changed to correct this.

The old bylaws, for example, permitted someone who was actually voted OFF the board (by virtue of getting the fewest vote) was permitted not only to remain on the board but to become the vice chair.  If the chair had stepped down during the time that followed, the board of directors would have been chaired by someone who was not elected to the board nor appointed to the board.  Is this a risk we want to take again?

The proposed bylaws go way beyond what the judge recommended, and this is why all of us need to become knowledgeable of the bylaws, both what existed before and what is proposed.

To help, I am going to publish the proposed change here and then offer this space for a discussion of the  changes.  Let’s have a lively, fruitful discussion!

2707 Penn Ave N – Help me close it down!

There is one last property on the 2700 block of Penn Ave N that is a real “problem property.”  Yes, Bob Zeman’s property at 2707 has been a problem for at least five years.  Lately, however, it  has been going down really fast.

Last summer, tenants there carried out buckets (large buckets!) of

Lawsuit #2 Decision Handed Down

Judge Charles Porter’s decision has been made (at last!).  To refresh your memory:  The lawsuit was filed by E.B. Brown, Ben Myers, Robert Scott, Shannon Hartfiel, Robert Wilson, William Brown, Dokor Dejvongsa, et. al., who are the Plaintiffs.  The lawsuit was filed against Defendants Kip Browne, Robert Hodson, P.J. Hubbard, Anne McCandless, Stacy Sorenson, JACC, the NRP, et. al.

The short version is that the Defendants won.  In a way, JACC and the city of Minneapolis were also losers.  The lawsuit cost more than $100,000 to litigate.  JACC had Directors & Officers Insurance (as do all city neighborhoods).  However, the insurer decided not to offer such insurance any long to Minneapolis neighborhoods because this one was so  expensive.  So Plaintiffs succeeded in harming not just members of JACC (the insurance policy has a $10,000 deductible that JACC must pay) but members of all neighborhoods throughout the city.  In addition, there was no order for the Plaintiffs to return JACC’s computers or records.

The entire  decision can be read here.  Click on the link below, then click on Lawsuit2Decision.pdf to download.

http://public.me.com/dottietitus

“Personal Peace & Safety” Discussion Tonight at 4PAC

Tonight’s Fourth Precinct Advisory Council (4PAC) meeting will include as presentation by Lt. Bret Lindback of the MPD’s Community Response Team (CRT) on the topic “Personal Peace and Safety Issues.”  There will be a social time from 6 to 6:30 p.m. at the 4th Precinct headquarters at 1925 Plymouth Avenue N (you can park in the lot across the street).  The formal meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. and usually runs for about an hour to an hour-and-a-half.   It includes an update from the Inspector’s office on how things are going in our neighborhoods so far this year, what they anticipate for the summer, and a time to ask questions.

From the MPD web site, here is what CRT does for us:

Community Response Team

The Community Response Team (CRT) uses a two pronged approach in responding to the concerns of citizens in the precinct.

The first approach is directed patrol which uses uniformed CRT officers to respond in the high crime areas of the precinct or areas that are experiencing specific problems. This gives a greater police presence in these areas, which helps prevent crime and increases the chances of catching criminals. This approach gives the precinct commander more flexibility in responding to crime trends in the precinct ranging from speeding cars, burglaries in a neighborhood, and drug dealing on a street corner, without affecting services to the community.

The second approach uses the expertise of the CRT Team’s “plain clothes”/ undercover officers to respond to precinct drug problems. The approach can be very effective because officers work closely with the community receiving complaints about drug houses and drug dealing. The CRT Team also investigates street level prostitution, disorderly houses and illegal liquor and cigarette sales.

This two pronged approach creates a highly responsive and effective team for the citizens.

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4PAC is a joint effort between the police department and citizens to provide information about neighborhood issues from both sides.  Citizens can learn first hand what police response is to recent crimes, and police can learn more about problems that citizens are experiencing.  4PAC meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the 4th Precinct.  It is open to all, and includes useful information and educational programs to help us all enjoy peace and safety where we live.

Anne McCandless Resigns from JACC Board

JACC’s Treasurer, Anne McCandless, has resigned from the board of directors.  Since late in 2006, Ms. McCandless worked tirelessly to make the “old majority” board accountable to Jordan residents for its decisions and actions.  She played an important role over the past 14 months as JACC recovered from the theft of its computer equipment and records.  She provided hours of testimony during the lawsuit against JACC by the “old majority.”  Because she has many, many years of involvement with JACC and is an excellent organizer, she provided most of the documentation that proved helpful in the case.  During the past year, she brought in a $10,000 grant from the Pohlad Foundation and took on many of the admin staff functions.  Going back to 2002/2003, it was Anne and Steven Oates who began the Jordan Livability Forum when JACC was flagging. The Livability Forum brought new life to the community and eventually merged with the formal JACC organization, resulting in a stronger neighborhood organization with greater citizen involvement.  Anne has served many years on the Housing Committee and is a Master Gardener who has worked often in Jordan’s Community Garden at 26th and Knox Avenue.  She has also represented JACC on numerous outside organizations and committees, including the Northside Home Fund Board, the Lowry Ave Great Streets Project and the Minneapolis Community Engagement Task Force.

It is with a deep sense of gratitude for her help that we bid her farewell:  You’ve done a great job, Anne.  Thank you.

North Minneapolis Loses a Treasure

I attended the memorial service today for Reed Frentz.  He died of cancer on January 10.  Among the many other things that Reed has done, he was the Treasurer for 4PAC (4th Precinct Advisory Council) for several years.  If you attended the meetings, Reed was the tall, lanky guy who always told us how much money was left in the 4PAC bank account. But he did so much more.  There were many children at his memorial service.  When the pastor asked how many of them had done activities with Reed, they all raised their hands.  He stepped in when help was needed.  He was one of the gentlest men I’ve ever known.  His passing leaves a huge gap in North Minneapolis.  He worked quietly, often behind the scenes, content to be helping.  When I had to leave my place on the 4PAC board, Reed stepped in and took over managing the 4PAC web site.  He worked long and hard in an attempt to get 501(c)(3) exemption status for 4PAC.  I heard today how he fixed bicycles for neighborhood children. Reed didn’t want the limelight–he just wanted to help…and play with his children…and love his family.

Reed was just 42 years old and leaves behind his 2 children, his wife, his father, his mother, and his two sisters. Please hold his family in your prayers.

JACC Bylaws to Be Revised (w/Community Approval)

At the JACC Board meeting last Wednesday (11/11/09), Kip Browne suggested he tackle the task of revising the bylaws that govern the operation of the Jordan Area Community Council (JACC).  He offered to take Judge Porter’s comments made during the hearings in the lawsuit filed by the former board executive committee members and incorporate them into the bylaws.

When the bylaws revision is ready, it will be presented to the board for a vote.  If the board approves the changes, then the amended bylaws must be approved by a vote of 2/3 of the membership present at the meeting where the vote is taken.  The community must be notified at least 28 days prior to the meeting.

There are discrepancies between the Bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation as to how the bylaws can be amended.

The Bylaws state in Article IX, Amendments: “These Bylaws may be amended by a vote of 2/3^rds of the membership present at any general membership meeting provided the amendment(s) have been submitted in writing to JACC and notice has been given to the general membership of the proposed change at least 28 days prior to the date of meeting at which the vote will be taken.“

The Articles of Incorporation state (also in Article IX, Amendments): “The Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws of this organization may be amended:  provided, that the following steps are taken in succession:

1.  The proposed amendment is given to the Secretary in writing.

2.  The proposed amendment is read at a General Membership meeting.

3.  All members are given due notice by mail of the proposed amendment.

4.  Two thirds of all members present vote in favor of adopting the proposed amendment.  At least one week must pass between steps three and four.“

When the current bylaws were approved by the membership in November, 2003, the process was a combination of these processes that ensured the best in member notification and time to review the changes:  Members were notified as part of the October 2003 annual meeting notification that bylaw changes had been proposed and would be presented at the annual meeting.  The bylaw changes were read at the annual meeting, they were modified at that meeting by the member motions to include two sections requiring adequate notification of JACC membership about meetings.  The bylaws were voted on at the November 2003 general membership meeting (community forum) and approved.  This gave members the opportunity to thoroughly review the  bylaws between the time they were presented and the time the vote was taken.

JACC Elects New Officers

At a special meeting of the Jordan Area Community Council tonight (10/29), the new board of directors elected its four officers.  Shown above, from left to right, are:  Vladimir Monroe, Chair; David Haddy, Secretary; Michael “Kip” Browne, Vice Chair; and Robert Hodson, Treasurer.